1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to well characterization, and, more particularly, to characterization of a well using a series of measurements from sensors deployed along the sandface of that well to optimize a well model. Such a well may, for example, be a production well that can be exploited to produce oil and/or gas.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The following descriptions and examples are not admitted to be prior art by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
Substantial work has been undertaken by the oil and gas industry to obtain information that can be used to determine physical parameters that characterize wells. One such effort has resulted in monitoring equipment which can detect when problems occur during fluid extraction from a well and which warn an operator of an abnormal operating condition. Several types of monitoring equipment using various techniques for measuring physical parameters that characterize wells are known. For example, the temperature profile of a well is a physical parameter that can provide an operator with useful information to characterize the well. One technique to obtain a temperature profile employs a downhole optical fiber acting as a distributed temperature sensor.
A drawback to the use of monitoring equipment is that the equipment tends to provide an indication of the abnormal condition once the event has already occurred. This type of monitoring equipment only enables the operator to provide a reactive response to the abnormal operating condition and may not provide an accurate indication of exactly where in the well the cause of the abnormal condition lies.
In the '829 application, a method is disclosed for characterizing a well using distributed temperature sensor data to optimize a well model. The method comprises the steps of providing a well model of thermal and flow properties of a well where the well model has a plurality of adjustable physical parameters. A data set made up of a plurality of distributed temperature sensor data profiles is provided where the profiles are taken at different times during the operation of the well. This method further comprises the step of running the well model with different combinations of the plurality of adjustable physical parameters to match the plurality of distributed temperature sensor data profiles.
It would be advantageous to provide a method of characterizing a well utilizing parameters other than downhole temperatures. This new and useful result is one of many stated and unstated results achieved by the method of the present invention.